Tarentum, Apr. 17, B.C. 58
I quite expected to see you at Tarentum or Brundisium, and it was important that I should for many reasons, among others for my stay in Epirus and for the advantage of your advice in other matters. That it did not happen I shall count among my many other misfortunes. I am starting for Asia, for Cyzicus in particular. I entrust my dear ones to you. It is with difficulty that I prolong my miserable existence.
From the neighbourhood of Tarentum, April 17.
VII
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. Brundisi pr. K. Mai. a. 696
Brundisium veni a. d. XIIII Kal. Maias. Eo die pueri tui mihi a te litteras reddiderunt, et alii pueri post diem tertium eius diei alias litteras attulerunt. Quod me rogas et hortaris, ut apud te in Epiro sim, voluntas tua mihi valde grata est et minime nova. Esset consilium mihi quidem optatum, si liceret ibi omne tempus consumere; odi enim celebritatem, fugio homines, lucem aspicere vix possum, esset mihi ista solitudo, praesertim tam familiari in loco, non amara; sed, itineris causa ut deverterer, primum est devium, deinde ab Autronio et ceteris quadridui, deinde sine te. Nam castellum munitum habitanti mihi prodesset, transeunti non est necessarium. Quod si auderem, Athenas peterem. Sane ita cadebat, ut vellem. Nunc et nostri hostes ibi sunt, et te non habemus et veremur ne interpretentur illud quoque oppidum ab Italia non satis abesse, nec scribis quam ad diem te exspectemus.
Quod me ad vitam vocas, unum efficis, ut a me manus abstineam, alterum non potes, ut me non nostri consilii vitaeque paeniteat. Quid enim est, quod me retineat, praesertim si spes ea non est quae nos proficiscentes prosequebatur? Non faciam ut enumerem miserias omnes, in quas incidi per summam iniuriam et scelus non tam inimicorum meorum
VII
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Brundisium, Apr. 29, B.C. 58
I arrived at Brundisium on April 17, and on the same day your men delivered a letter from you. The next day but one some others brought me another letter. I am very grateful for your kind invitation to stay at your place in Epirus, though I expected it. It is a plan, which would have just suited me, if I could have stayed there all the time. 1 hate a crowd, I shun my fellow-men, I can hardly bear to look upon the light: so the solitude there, especially as I am so at home there, would have been far from unpleasant. But for stopping on the route it is too far out of the way: moreover I should be only four days’ march from Autronius and the rest, moreover you would not be there yourself. Yes, a fortified place would be useful to me if I were settling there, but it is unnecessary, when I am merely passing. If I dared, I should make for Athens; and things were turning out right for it: but now my enemies are there, you have not joined me, and I am afraid that town too may not be counted far enough away from Italy. Nor have you let me know when I may expect you.